Gorges de Taghia, revisited

Taghia village from the top of Taoujdad

As an early fiftieth birthday present to myself I arranged a short trip to the best mountain limestone climbing in Europe. Funny enough, this mythical place is found in Africa, but it is the only limestone climbing the Italian, the Iberians and the French can all agree upon as being possibly the best. This is because of absolutely bomber limestone on orange mountains with most impressive profiles.

Taghia was discovered as a climbing destination in the 70s, when French visitors put up routes following the most obvious features on the biggest objectives, finding traces of one earlier mystery route ascended by possibly a Polish team. In the 80s and 90s the Spanish started to develop the place, among them the Gallego brothers and Toni Arbones, and around 2000 the French found their way back in numbers, when Ravier, Thivel and later Petit and Bodet put in substantial work.

From the turn of the millennium until today there has been rapid development, and the lastest version of Christian Ravier's guidebook (2019) lists 167 long routes from 200 to 900 m around the village, and more than 70 long routes around nearby villages, as well as some 50 single pitch routes. New routes are still getting put up all the time, and soon a single volume will not be enough to cover the routes.

The Guidebook

Despite being in the middle of the High Atlas, Taghia can be accessed within a day from any European metropolitan area. The flight to Marrakesh is followed by about 5 hours in taxi, followed by a one hour hike with donkeys or a short shuttle with a 4x4 taxi, and the one hour time difference to CET makes it easy to leave home anywhere in Europe and climb the next day. 

I assume that the newly constructed route will soon get a better surface and that city taxies can get all the way to the village. When it does, the tourism will absolutely explode as the valley really is one of the more spectacular on earth.

The road to Taghia can be used by cars with good clearance and new suspensions if driving with care 

Compared to last time we visited eight years ago, the village is clearly better off. Now all houses have electricity, the worst shacks have been demolished and better houses have replaced them, and thanks to the road way fewer villagers die in transit to hospital.

There are also more climbers, more hikers, better shops, and it seems like there is better separation between fresh and black water. (We still filtered all drinking water and put chlorine tablets in it, did not eat any fruits that was not peeled, and were served bottled water for dinner.)

The routes are a mixture of fully bolted, mostly bolted, mixed and unbolted multipitch. We did what most casual visitors do and brought just a set of quickdraws with a few alpine draws, a set of wires and a single set of cams from finger to hand. You can easily do without any removable protection for a week or two, but a minimal rack leaves more possibilities to climb long routes where some of the easy pitches don't have many bolts. Next time I will try to convince someone to join me on one of the classic crack climbs and bring a full rack.

From browsing the topos and talking to other climbers on site, I suspect that you really have to be able to climb 6b mandatory to get the most out of a week's stay. The mandatory grade is a rough estimate on how hard you have to pull between the bolts, what the generation of scandinavian climbers before me quoted as the grade they were 'solid' on. 

The routes from the 70s and 80s are of course easier, but they look longer than they look amazing, and might require a few pitons? I suspect they are mostly mystery quests, something that is not everyone's cup of mint tea.

Ravier's beautiful guidebook has clear topos and is generally good, if a bit terse. It must be nice to be able to write for an audience that is thought to be competent enough to tie their own shoelaces. Most routes just have a simple line-drawing indicating the pitches, and a write-up of the name, the length, the first ascensionist details, a word on the rack required—if necessary—and a one-word description. A route is simply 'great', 'beautiful', 'disappointing' or perhaps 'serious'. The approaches are usually described as 'obvious' or in worst case 'useful to scout out beforehand'. In any case, even though the guidebook is in French, you don't need to be able to read French to use it. The drawings are clear enough.

We stayed again in the classic Gite Taoujdad, owned by Said Messaoudi. You can communicate with Said beforehand on email (in French). However, I had to relearn the evergreen lesson of never putting more than one single subject in one or two simple sentences in a mail. (You would think that a teacher would already know this...) The food in Said's gite (breakfast and dinner) was great and plentiful, and shared in the big common room with other teams of climbers, and some occasional hikers — even some Moroccan guests, in a nice international atmosphere. For those of us not speaking Berber or Arab, a modicum of French is more than useful. When we were there there were always people around to help with translation, and it seemed like it was possible to arrange with time for eating breakfast in English as well.

Timrazine, Taoujdad and Oujdad in the morning after snowfall

The weather during our stay was unstable and unseasonably cold, with snow all the way down in the village (1900 masl). Some of the snow stayed on the surrounding peaks for a couple of days. As such we climbed perhaps one or two fewer routes less than I'd have liked. Such is life in the mountains.

Some notes on the routes we did this time: (for more, check out my post on Taghia from our visit in September 2015).

Alex and Mikael on À boire...

Champion de Maroc, 7a+ (Champion of Morocco), ED- 310 m.

Great route on impeccable rock. Listed in the new edition of Parois de Légende. Just next to Au nom de la réforme and À boire ou j'tue l'chien. Pitch 1-5 are fully bolted. To get to the top, bring some gear (either a set of wires or 2-3 friends, e.g. camalot #0.4, #0.5 and #0.75).

Julia on pitch two of Champion de Maroc

P1 7a/+ 30m We scrambled up to the first bolt (3+ friction) and belayed from there, making the pitch closer to 30 than 50 m. The crux is probably a bit morpho. Great climbing.
P2 7a 45m Start up an excellent dihedral to more technical face climbing. Amazing pitch.
P3 6c 45m. More good climbing leads to a comfortable ledge.
P4 5c 40m. Still vertical, but now with jugs. Good fun.
P5 5c/6a 40m. More of the same. Pure sport climbers can rap off after this pitch. We are tainted by traditions and want to go to the top of mountains, so we continued.
P6-7 110m 4+? One bolt. Some gear.

Descent: Walk down the south face, following cairns to find a rap station that takes you down to a saddle. The rap is 35m, but can be done on a 60m rope if you are willing to downclimb a few metres of 4+.

Some of the young men from the village were solicited by the climbing clubs of Casablanca and Rabat for the national championships. The route is dedicated to the local climber Mohamed Amil.

Les Rivières Pourpres, 7b+ (Crimson rivers), ED+, 600 m.

13 draws (11 draws max on the pitches, iirc)

World heritage route. Long and sustained for the first eleven pitches. The 13th pitch is not to be discounted as well. Hauling is easy on P1-11, and might also be possible on P13 (we did not test this theory)

Alex on one of the lower pitches of Les Rivières Pourpres

Approach: Enter the canyon below the north face by an expo 4b move on a polished slab some 10-15 m above the riverbed. Around the corner there are two bolts hopefully equipped with a bit of a rope to use as a handrail. Traverse on the right side of the canyon then cross the river on a juniper tree, then easy climbing to a bolt where an exposed traverse (3c) left leads to easier hiking. A huge boulder blocks the passage, if the water is low you can chimney up a hole on its right side (push the haulbag in front of you), head lamp not necessary. When the river is high, climb the first pitch of Canyon Apache (6a) on the left side of the boulder and rap down above the boulder. After the boulder walk up another fifty metre until a marked path leads up the ledges to the base of the routes. "RP" written at the base of the climb. 1 hour.

Mikael following pitch nine of Rivières Poupres

The approach is regularly swarmed by local kids in flip-flops, so suck it up buttercup.

P1 6c 30m A rough awakening. Challenging and a bit runout. Not that great, imho.
P2 6c 30m More of the same. Some fairly obligatory passages on steep rock.
P3 7a 40m Good pitch. Fairly sustained
P4 7b 25m Steep. I cannot remember a single thing about this pitch.
P5 6c 25m A bit zig-zag.
P6 7a 40m Face climbing to easier terrain (6b)
P7 7a 40m. Technical face climbing then run-out but easier near the belay.
P8 7b 40m. Brilliant pitch. More technical face climbing then sustained climbing through an overhang to a final bit of tricky run-out face climbing.
P9. 7a+ 40m. Great run-out face climbing until the bolter's courage ran out and a traversing A0-style ladder leads to the belay.
P10 7a+ 45m. A steep well protected boulder problem leads to easier climbing.
P11 7b+ 40m. Brilliant steep sustained well bolted climbing to a protected but committing crux. The belay is to the left just below the huge ledge.
P12 5a 55m. Walk across the big ledge, diagonally up a ramp left, then back right past a single bolt to a belay in a horisontal crack.
P13 6b+ 50m. Pretty sparsely bolted crack climbing leads to more complex but still steep terrain. (A friend or two would be nice to have, but who would drag that up this route?)
P14 5a 50m. Some bolts function as cairns to lead the way.
P15 5a 50-60m. Two-three bolts of climbing leads to scrambling. Possible to make a belay around natural features at any point towards the top.

Descent as for Champion de Maroc

Les Rivières Pourpres is a middling crime drama set in the alps. The movie version stars Jean Reno.

Topping out

Soleil de pluie, 6c+ (6b+) ED-, 250 m.

15 draws. 

Brand new route on Parois de Sources. We found this route excellent, but the grade given by the first ascensionist felt a bit off, maybe due to the pristine new rock and no trace of magnesium on the holds. Extraordinary generously bolted. Hauling OK.

P1. 6b+ 35m Start from the newly constructed bridge. Climb with some difficulties past a bulge to a belay. Felt more like 6c, but was not exactly dry and clean.
P2. 6a+ 30m a nice vertical wall leads past a steep ledge to two belays on a steep face. We took the lower belay.
P3. 6c+ 45m. Start up the dihedral and quickly leave it rightwards and up on a brilliant journey. Felt hard for me.
P4. 6c+ 45m. Up the arete and then technical of-vertical face climbing, just to the right of another new route, which it joins at the belay.
P5. 6c 40m. Straight up to a ledge where there is an optional belay where it crosses Rêve d'Aicha. Nice slab climbing leads to a belay on the big ledge system below the fifth pitch of Rêve d'Aicha.
P6. 6a+ 35m. Same as Rêve d'Aicha
P7. 3c 20m. Past a single bolt then up left to a bolted belay, or just make belay wherever. Keep scrambling to the top (grade 2, cairns).

Me on pitch five of Soleil de pluie

Soleil de pluie (Sunshower) is a French variety song from the early 70s.

Baraka, 7b (6b), ED-, 650m

13 draws of which three 60 cm. Three-four friends e.g. camalot #0.4 to #1 for the top pitches. 50 m ropes, light twins would be perfect. We climbed light with shoes and water clipped to the harness and candy in the pockets. Low mandatory grade, but loads of climbing. Long day. Tooks us seven hours to climb, but thanks to rain and snow the days before the route was washed clean of chalk, might be quicker if you can follow some traces of others. The first half had a few wet holds, but thanks to the abrasiveness of the rock it was totally fine to climb in these conditions.

Julia starting up pitch six of Baraka

Approach: From Taghia village, at Gîte d'etape Taoujdad cross the river and take the path leading straight up to Oujdad on the left side of a small hill. The path is well marked and leads to the ledges that crosses the west face of Oujdad.  The route starts after the bridge, at the lowest point of the pillar. The name is written near the base. 1 hour.

P1 6b+ 40m 8 bolts. The start is a bit expo (6a) and I put in a green camalot between the first and second bolt. There is a surprisingly hard section near the belay, bolted for A0. Climb well to the left of the bolts on top.
P2 6b 45m 8 bolts. Mostly slabs.
P3 6b+ 50m 13 bolts. Great slab climbing, watch out for rope drag.
P4 7b 20m 10 bolts. Vertical climbing, bolted for A0 on the hard part. About five-six bolts worth of tricky sustained climbing on slopers with a few crimps.
P5 6b+ 50m 12 bolts. Quite a bit back and forth, use your shoulder-length slings!
P6 6c 40m 11 bolts. Amazing technical face climbing that zig-zags around the bolts. This pitch marks the end of the technical difficulties.
P7 6a+ 50m 8 bolts. The first part of the pitch is harder and has more protection, the second part is fairly easy (5b?) and a bit run-out.
P8 5c 40m 6 bolts. Possible to put in some extra gear if needed.
P9 5c/6a 40m 5 bolts.
P10 5b 40m 3 bolts. Stick to the dihedral, the bolts you see on the right is on Barracuda. Fairly easy climbing between the bolts, possible to add some gear.
P11 6a 35m 5 bolts. A few pulls to leave the belay, then easy hiking on the ridge (3) to the belay.
P12 4a 30m 1 bolt. Hike across the ledge and then up past a bolt to the belay.
P13 6a 35m 4 bolts. Straight up from the belay (solid friend) to a bolt, then join the big dihedral where bolts and solid gear lead to the belay back left.
P14 6a+ 40m 5 bolts. Follow the dihedral on a mixture of bolts and decent friends, and possibly a few mid-sized wires if you are tired by this point. Then slightly left up to the belay.
P15 6b 55m 7 bolts. Straight up (6a) to a well bolted traverse out left and do two pulls (6b) past a bolt to the top. Scramble 30 m. on ledges (2c). Two bolts mark the way to a bolted belay.

Untie and walk up ledges (1c/2a) for 100m to the top of Oujdad.

On pitch six of Baraka

Descent: From the top, descend a well-marked path that meanders on ledges 10-60 m. skier's left of the south-east ridge, with views of Taoujdad. Pass some gendarms and then descend about 100m of altitude until the path branches. The right branch leads to some sheep pasture on a big ledge were cairns and traces leads to a rappel station hidden in a cave behind a dead calcified juniper. The left branch also has cairns and leads to a down-climb (grade 3, unprotected). After the rappel follow a vague path traversing the slope towards south until hitting a well marked path that leads via a big loop south to the refuge at the base of Oujdad. The refuge is manned during the season. From the refuge, the path leads back to the base of the route. 2h30 min to the base of the route.

Baraka is a Moroccan brand of jam. It is apparently also the benediction of The Lord in Islam and Judaism alike. 

Classic routes. I have not done more than half of these, but they are all of good repute and often repeated:

La rêve d'Aicha, TD, 6a+ (6a), 220m. Timrazine (Parois de Sources).
Belle et Bebère, TD+, 6b+ (6a+) 300m. Timrazine (Parois de Sources).
Allumeur du rêve Berbère TD+ 6b+ (6a+) 320m. Timrazine.
Au nom de la Reform, TD+ 6c (6b). Taoujdad. A set of wires if going to the top, otherwise rap the route from top of pitch 7.
À boire ou je tué le chien TD+ 6c (6b+). Taoujdad. A set of wires for the first pitch.
Canyon Apache ED- 6c (6b) 355m. Timrazine
Haben oder Sein TD+ 6b+ (6b risky) 240 m. Parois de la Cascade.
Widi Azry, ED- 7a (6c risky) 500 m. Taoujdad.
Baraka ED- 7b (6b+ A0) 685 m. Oujdad.
Zebda ED+ 7b+ (6c) 260 m. Timrazine (Parois de Sources).
Suserro Berbere ED+ 7b+ (6c) 280 m. Timrazine (Parois de Sources).
Fat Guides ED+ 7b+ (6c) 280 m. Timrazine (Parois de Sources).
Shucran ED4 7c (7a) 380 m. Oujdad.
Les Rivieres Poupres  ED+ 7b+ (6c+) 600 m. Taoujdad.
Fantasia ED4 7c (7a+) 600 m. Tuyat.
L'Axe du Mal ED4 7c+ (7a+) 550 m. Tadrarate.
Rouge Berbère (Astroman of Africa) ED+ 7b 560 m. Tadrarate. Full mountain rack up to camalot #5
Babel ED+ 7c+ (7a+ risky) 800 m. Tuyat.

Taghia Valley Marocko. Various Routes

TAGHIA: The limestone valley

Team on Zebda, 7b+.

The climbing

It is the world class multi pitch limestone climbing, from 7 to 20 pitches that make climbers travel all the way to Taghia. Some routes have no bolts, most are partly bolted, and some are fully or almost fully bolted. 

Some of the older routes follow ridges and are lower in the grades, but they are rarely repeated. To get most out of a one week stay, climbing the easy popular routes, you’d have to be at least a 6c climber, in the sense that seeing the 6c-grade (or 6b obligatory) on a big multi pitch route do not strike fear into you. There is nothing much harder than 8a/+ (or 7b obligatory) in the valley (One 8b and one 8c afaik).

The climbing is technical, steep and fingery throughout. The grades felt in line with Verdon, maybe a tad more generous. Bring good shoes. Unfortunately your good shoes will not last long as the rock is very abrasive.

There is also some single pitch climbing around Taghia, one crag with some 4s and 5s, one with 7s, and one rather nice looking tufa wall with some low eights. Kris Erickson, an american guide living in Zaouia Ahanesal, has bolted a number of sport routes around Zaouia Ahanesal with grades from the low sixes to mid eights.

Taghia Valley

When we went we were the only climbers in the valley, possibly due to the perceived terrorism threat after this summer’s spectacular strike in neighbouring Algeria. (Talking to the Taxi-driver in Marrakesh and to people in Taghia, the consequences for Moroccan tourism has been catastrophic) . There was in other words no hope of rescue if things went bad. Even if there are other climbers in the valley, who are likely to be competent, I would not count on timely rescues being possible—and how would you call on rescue in the first place? Yosemite or the Alps it isn’t.

The trekking

The hiking in the High Atlas in general, and around Zaouia Ahanesal in particular, is spectacular. There are donkey trails that criss cross the mountain range between the villages, but very few roads. Some valleys and canyons can be accessed by “Berber ferratas”, where a certain trust in goat-herder’s engineering skills is required.

Kris Erickson in Zaouia Ahanesal can arrange everything around a trekking trip.

On the path across ... Photo: Julia Sni

Gear

Depending on what you wish to do of course. We went for a sport climbing trip and brought 19 draws, of which 5 where tripled 60 cm draws, one set of wires and one set of camalots from #0.3 to #2. Those who want to do the longest and most serious sport routes probably wish to bring a #3 and doubles in #.75-2. To repeat the less bolted routes a normal mountain rack is necessary, and possibly a handfull of pitons as well.

If the bolts can be accessed by grade 3-4 scrambling, the Berber might find better use for the nuts and hangers than being protection for climbing tourists: thus there are reports of missing bolt hangers on the first belay of some routes on Parois de Cascade. Bring a hanger or two and some M10 nuts, or M10 nuts, washers and some wires to thread the bolts.

Two ropes, at least 50 m. Most teams probably wish to haul the pack on the harder pitches.

Guidebook

The only printed guidebook is Christian Revier’s beautiful 2009 book “Taghia, Montagnes Berbères” (French) available directly from the author, or through internet retailers. An update would be more than welcome, considering the amount of routes put up since the publication.

A print-out of the topos from Taghia on Luichys site is an almost complete Spanish language guidebook for the routes in the area (up to ≈ 2009 or so) http://lanochedelloro.com/monografs/taghia/index.htm (Spanish)

There are also topos for some of the popular routes on Remi Thivel’s site http://www.remi-thivel.com/topos/topos.html (French)

Parois de Legende, (Bodet & Petit) (french) also list a number of routes with topos and some useful info. 

A few of the new hard routes put up after the publication of Revier’s book have topos on planetmountain.com, (French and Italian) but generally speaking, for routes put up after 2009, the new route book and guest book in Said’s gite is the best bet.

Camptocamp.com (French) has some information of course.

Staying there

There are a number of gites in Taghia offering half pension. Said’s and Youssef’s Gite among them. Said was the first to cater to climbers, and his Gite has a new-route book and guest book full of impressive stories by climbers of all abilities, from 6c-punters to some of the biggest names in European multi-pitch climbing. Said's gite has consistently good reputation, and I have never heard of anyone having a bad experience.

Most French climbers stay at Said’s Gite. Said speaks French, his son Mohammed speaks good French and a bit of English, and should be able to help you out if you have no French. We paid 120 Dh per person per night at Said’s place (September 2015)

Chez Said Messaoudi, Douar Taghia, Zaouia Ahanesal 

22010 Azilal Maroc

Cellphone +212668246536 (intermittent coverage)

Fixed line +212523 459 290 (directly to the house)

e.mail: gitesaid@yahoo.fr (if you speak no french it is probably best to e-mail them in English. Mohammed will be able to reply)

http://www.climbingtaghia.com
https://www.facebook.com/Gite-Tawajdat-taghia-organization-of-travel-198075623567735/

Chez Youssef Rezki, Douar Taghia, Zaouia Ahanesal 

22010 Azilal Maroc. 

Tel : 00 212 668909843

Shopping

La Boutique Jamal is always open, or so they claim. Holler for them and they come. They had bottled water, Coke, threaded gas canisters (the smallest size), canned sardines, gigantic bags of couscous, some nuts, candy, soap, and internet access for sale (requires a subscription to Meditel). The woman who runs the shop has limited numeracy, so be prepared to do some addition.

There are two other shops in the village. But we only frequented this one.

La Boutique Jamal

Weather

http://www.yr.no/place/Morocco/Tadla-Azilal/Taghia~2531726/

http://www.meteoblue.com/en/weather/forecast/week/31.783N-6.067E2083

Getting there

Book a gite in Taghia beforehand. Fly to Marrakesh—plenty of low cost carriers traffic Marrakesh—and let the gite arrange the transport from Marrakesh to Taghia. We took taxi all the way from Marrakesh to Zaouia Ahanesal, where the road ends (around 6-7 hours with a lunch break in Azilal) (1200 Dh, October 2015). From Zaouhia, hike in with donkey/mule (100-120 Dh per donkey). One donkey will bring up to 70 kg.

Another option is to get from Marrakesh to Azilal by public transport, than get to Zaouia with taxi.

Yet another option would be to rent a car and drive to Zaouia Ahanesal yourself.

On the donkey trail

Hygiene

More or less everyone who’s ever been has been reporting stomach bugs. We put aquatabs in all water or boiled it before drinking, including the water used for brushing the teeth. We also washed the hands and used  antiseptic spray like a couple of OCDs. Still both of us got diarrhoea. 

Season

Mid-april to end of October. July and August likely too hot (and travelling in and out of Marrakesh would be a nightmare at that time of year). May and October being the most popular months, with up to 40-50 climbers in the village. In the autumn of 2015 the gites are reporting very few bookings, and we were by ourselves in mid September, having very good conditions for climbing in the shade with daytime temperatures in the low 20s. In May it reportedly rains quite a bit.

Modern life is rubbish?

Since 2013 there is electricity in the village Taghia. There is also cell phone coverage, but only through Meditel,: no other Moroccan provider will work. There’s also intermittent 3G coverage, but even though our French sim cards could access Meditel for SMS & MMS, we could not get data roaming (which was probably for the better since they ask 3€/Mb for traffic…). We bought a code good for 800 Mb (200 Dh) in the store in Taghia and Mohammed, Said’s son, set up his phone as a wifi-router for us.

The upshot is that it is possible to get up-to-date weather forecasts. We found the one-day forecasts from meteoblue.com to be reliable.

Vaccines

Hepatitis A. Two shots, separated by six months, some protection after the first shot.

Diphtheria. A single shot protects for three years

Lockjaw/tetanus. (This is included in the vaccine program for children in most EU countries)

What to bring

Climbing gear

Two pair of shoes. The approach/decent shoes will get wet, so it is nice to change to dry shoes after returning to the village

Toilet paper

Head scarf (for women who want to pay respect to local customs)

Aquatabs

Possibly a small gas stove for tea

A small medical kit including diarea tabs, penicillin, antiseptic cream, antiseptic spray and painkillers.

PERSONAL NOTES ON ROUTES

À boire ou je tue le chien ** (A drink or I kill the dog) 280m 6c (6b+ obligatory)

Julia on À boire ou je tue le chien

Nice climbing on excellent rock. A bit engaged in places. Has been onsight soloed (Alex Honnhold). Possible to combine with Au nom de la reform for a great day out, if you rap after pitch six. The sun hits the wall around noon beginning of September. 

Gear: 12 quick draws, a few wires (Wallnuts #2-#7). Four cams if continuing to the top after pitch 7.

Approach: From Taghia to Taojdad. Go up in the channel between Taoujdad & Oujdad. 30 min after the village, pass a big block on the left. Continue up until a path (cairns) left lead to the two obvious ramps that mark the start of Au nom de la réforme and À boire respectively.

P1 5c. Climb the crack (4) protected by wires or small friends. Then a mixture of wires and bolts to the belay. A bit engaged. Many teams report that this is at least 6a, but if you’re used to climb low-angle cracks 5c is probably fair.

P2 6c. Really good climbing, morpho.

P3 6c. I did something wrong on the start of this pitch. Did a 7a-sequence straight up between the first and second bolt, where a fall would have been unpleasant. My second told me it was easier more to the right rather than straight up, probably 6c.

P4. 6a+ Nice face climbing.

P5. 6b+ Steep and awkward dihedral. Don’t worry, a bolt will appear when needed.

P6. 5c. Reasonably well bolted face climbing. This is the last steep pitch and the last independent pitch as well.

To climb to the top of Taoujdad, change to your approach shoes and climb the top pitches of La Reform:

P7. 4+ Trekking along the ridge. Then some face climbing past a bolt (4+), then some trekking again past a big tree to the last steep face. (75 m or so)

P8. 5a. Two or three bolts. Two-three finger sized cams useful (40 m)

Decent from Taoujdad: From the top, head south-east on a path (plenty of cairns), diagonally skier’s right. Find a tree with slings and rap 40 m to a col, or 55 m down skiers right. Walk diagonally left and cross the ridge, then follow cairns down and right. Aim for the white water streak in the intermittent creek. Close to this, carefully follow the switchbacks on the right side of the couloir. About 1 hour down to the point where you took off towards the start of the routes and 2 hours down to the village.

Taoujdad

Belle et Berbère *** (The Beauty and The Berber) 300 m, 6b+ (6a+ obligatory)

Very good climbing on a contrived line. Extraordinarily sustained 6b climbing, with most pitches around vertical on good to excellent rock. Very fingery throughout. Probably the most frequently climbed route in Taghia beside La Réforme. The sun hit the face around 12.30 in September.

13 draws. (And possibly a finger sized friend to protect grade 3 scrambling if necessary)

Approach on the left side of the creek to Parois des Sources. Two ledges on top of each other, climb up to the lower ledge further to the right with cairns on top of it (3+). There is a route (bolt) starting on the right side of the ledge, Belle et Berber start further right, just around the corner. 15 min from the village if you find the route straight away…

Me on Belle et Berbère

P1. 6b Traverse right (three bolts) into a right-facing overhanging dihedral with tufas-in-the-process of growth. 

P2. 6b Follow the bolts. Hard slab boulder in the start, then easier. Mind the rope drag.

P3. 6b Sustained low-angle face climbing

P4. 6b+ Sustained 6b climbing with a boulder move in the middle. 

P5 6a+  Short easy pitch, very contrived line where the bolts are placed to force you away from the natural line.

P6. 6b+  Long pitch. Vertical climbing, just when you think it is over, there is a slab crux, then face climbing to the top.

P7 6b  Walk across the ledge and then climb a bolted face. The careful climber move the belay to under the face, or just don’t fall. Belay with one bolt and a tree.

P8. 3. One bolt, then hiking diagonally right and scramble up (3b, unprotected or bring a finger sized friend) right to a red big face. Belay in one bolt or stretch up and clip the first bolt on the next pitch as well.

P9. 6b+ A crux on slopers off the first bolt, then easier climbing diagonally right to a steep finish.

P10. 6b+ Hard sequence across the fin, the rest is easier.

Decent from Parois des Sources. Scramble diagonally up left until you see the cairns on the ledge system to the left of the top. Follow the well marked path on the ledges for a few hundred meters, and then track back towards the village along the path. (45 min). Sticks or  stones might be useful to fend off aggressive dogs on this side of the village.

Zebda *****, 260 m, 7b+ (6c obligatory)

Second of the top the line. Better than The holy War in Wadi Rum, and slightly worse than Alix, punk of the Vergons in Verdon. Steep climbing on immaculate rock for 280 sustained meters. One of the most popular and recommended routes in Wadi Rum. Deservedly so.

The sun hit the route at around 13:00.

14 draws + belays.

Approach: Walk to Parois des Sources, past the sources and cross the river and track back. The name of the route is written in big letters at the base. 20 min from the village.

Julia on Zebda

P1. 7b+ Tough warm up. Well bolted face climbing (7a) with decent rests up to a short boulder crux at the tufa.

P2. 6a+ for the tall. Morpho. Worst pitch on the route.

P3. 6c+ A fantastic pitch. Steep face climbing.

P4. 7b Sustained climbing straight off the belay. Then a bit easier to the roof. The mantel shelf move above the roof is OK. The belay is hanging and in the middle of a non-trivial sequence. Strong climbers with good ethics are advised to bring plenty of quick draws and a 70 m rope and link it with the next pitch.

P5. 7a+ Another mind blowing pitch. Steep crimpy face climbing. Engaged and not trivial (6c-ish) near the belay.

P6 6c. Face climbing straight from the belay, and than a tricky traverse on good holds but mediocre feet.

P7 6c+ Steep climbing. At least a grade easier than previous pitch.

P8 6b (50m). Major pitch. Steep stemming up the corner. Belay on a single bolt + a tree.

Scramble 5-10 min to the top and descend as for The beauty and the Berbere

Approach to Canyon Apache/North face of Taojdad

Walk past Parois des Sources, and access the canyon to the left by scrambling up on its right side. A bolt around the corner is used to make the passage 4/A0 (expo). Keep walking up-river with a short passage of scrambling. 

After a while you come to a narrow passage where there are two options: either an exposed slab traverse to the left (5, one bolt) supposedly leads to a Berber bridge at a delicate river crossing (this bridge was either under water or gone when we where there) or three bolts on a bulge can be aided and then a short passage of 4+ climbing (one bolt) lead to a glue-in bolt (belay). From this traverse left and up and scramble along ledges until the river can be accessed again-

Further upstream there are some gigantic boulders blocking the canyon. If the water level is very low it is apparently possible to walk up to these and climb up and under them (very exposed) to approach the north face of Taojdad. Again we had to high water for this to be possible, instead we did the more common approach by way of the first pitch of Canyon Apache. Climb up three bolts on the left side of the canyon (the third was really loose) then traverse right 30 m to a delicate passage (6a) leads to a ledge. On the right side of the ledge the second pitch of Canyon Apache can be found.

To approach the north face of Taojdad downclimb from the start of the second pitch of Canyon Apache to the riverbed.

To get from the north face of Taojdad back to the village it is supposedly possible to rap down the passage with the gigantic boulders mentioned above. The water was to high for us and we had to reverse the first pitch of Canyon Apache.

The Canyon, not accessible from the village side without one and a half pitch of climbing

Classe Montagne Épinal **, 185 m, 6c+ (6b obligatory)

Approach: Scramble up the ledge system from right. The route follows a big pillar system.

P1 6b+. A very good vertical pitch

P2 6b.  Another good pitch

P3 5+

P4 6c+ Good vertical face climbing with a hard sequence straight up from the belay.

P5 6a+ dihedral. Not so good. A shoulder length sling can be used around a tree at the top of the pitch

P6 6b Straight up to a ledge, then traverse far right on the ledge then straight up. Two ropes useful

P7 6a+ Many bolts. Finish on the ledge with belay on one bolt + tree.

Untie and scramble up diagonally to the left to the ledge system that traverse the mountain on the south east side. Follow the cairns.

Julia on Classe Montagne 

Fat guides ***** 250 m, 7b+ (7a obligatory)

Start to the left of Zebda

For the grade it does not get much better. Dead vertical wall of perfect limestone. Will only improve as a few more ascents clean it up further.

P1 7b+ Hard start for the first few bolts, then steady climbing until a physical traverse out left. Finish up a very thin slab. This pitch probably sees some seepage as it was quite dirty. Felt like 7c/+ in the conditions we had.

P2 6c+ Nice short pitch.

P3 6c The same. The 3rd bolt is quite tricky to clip for short climbers (bring a stiff draw or a medium sized climbing partner).

P4 7a+. Magnificent pitch, not alway totally obvious to find the best sequence. Semi-hanging belay. Felt like 7b/+ to me.

P5 7b? Easy climbing up to a short two-bolt crux to a good hold, then some pumpy climbing lead to a comfortable belay. Either I missed something, or this is more like 7b+/c. A bail biner on the bolt before the hardest part told me I’m not alone finding this difficult.

P6. 6c. Another very nice, short pitch to a good belay.

P7. 7a+  An absolutely superb pitch. The first bolt is put in a bit too high, then there are 18(!) bolts in 50 m. It’s possible to shuffle draws in a few places, in which case 15 draws should be enough

P8. 4. 15 m. No bolts. Climb a bit to the right, than back to the left to a two-bolt belay, Two shoulder length slings can be used for protection, tying off some shrubs.

P9 3+ Traverse straight left on the sloping ledge. A rope can be nice for the first 15-20 m. 

Continue to traverse the ledge and exit like Classe Montagne Épinal, or why not finish with the last two beautiful pitches of Belle et Berbère (6b+ and 6b+), if you haven’t climbed that before.